Reflection
by sevanderslice
Summary: Part Three of the "Come Back To Me" series - While searching for her lost daughter, Rose discovers something quite disturbing.
1. Chapter 1

_This takes place in the same universe as Come Back To Me, my post Doomsday Reuion fic, and its sequal Return For Me (which I haven't finished yet, sorry). You do not have to read either story in order to enjoy this one, but it wouldn't hurt. This fic is also a present for my lovely friend Vincelia Valentine, who gives the best reviews ever._

* * *

Reflection

Part 1

Rose searched frantically for the better part of an hour; opening and closing doors like a mad woman, growing more and more anxious as each empty corridor of the TARDIS revealed absolutely nothing. Her breath was coming faster now, tears just starting to burn the rim of her tired eyes, as panic threatened to overcome rationality any moment. Rose drew in a ragged half-sob as once again, the open door in front of her revealed nothing behind it. How, in the ten minutes that she'd been gone making weak tea and dry toast, had one tiny little five year old, sick with fever, managed to completely disappear?

It wasn't fair, Rose thought petulantly, not caring at all if she were acting younger than the girl she was looking for. Rose could face just about anything, and given what she'd been through, both with the Doctor, and during the time she'd worked for Torchwood, that was certainly saying something. Give her a Slitheen, a werewolf, or a disembodied life form any day, and Rose wouldn't bat an eyelash, but just the thought of loosing her baby girl made Rose go all to pieces.

Freya had been fine this morning, playing happily with her older brother; riding on his back as he'd raced down the long corridors of the TARDIS. She'd squealed in delight, begging Tyler over and over again to keep going, to run faster. When she'd refused to eat later, Rose had thought it had just been a little nausea, caused from all the excitement. An hour later though, as her daughter lay shivering under a mountain of blankets, her temperature skyrocketing, and her tiny body wracked with coughs, Rose had known how very wrong that assumption had been. God, she hadn't even been able to give her any children's paracetamol, because her father's stupid Time Lord biology made their daughter intolerant to normal human pain relievers. Bullets, poison, radiation, getting stomped by a swarm of giant beetles, sure those were no problem: just slurp down a cup of tea, grow a new body, and voila they were fine. But swallow a Panadol, and you could cancel all your plans for…well, _all_ your plans.

Oh where could she be? At this point, Rose was almost running, terrified that every corner she turned would reveal a broken little body at the bottom of a staircase, or slumped against a wall from some sort of fever induced coma. It certainly didn't help that there was no one else on the ship to turn to. Both the Doctor and Tyler had left hours ago, searching high and low in yet another alien bazaar, to find some medicinal herbs that the little Time Lady's body _could_ tolerate.

_Just one more door_, Rose told herself as calmly as possible as she navigated the spiral staircase leading to the massive wardrobe room, _just one more hallway, just one more…_Rose's eyes stung with unshed tears as she entered the cluttered room. She paused in the doorway, taking deep breaths as her whole body sagged in immense relief. At the far end of the room, surrounded by rows and rows of hat boxes, suit jackets, and colorful period costumes, was Freya.

She was barefoot, still dressed in her little white vest top pajamas with the pink drawstring trousers she favored so much. She was, strangely enough, leaning against the full length mirror; resting her cheek against the glass, a look of soulful contemplation on her little face. Rose approached slowly, afraid to startle her out of such a deep state of thought, but desperate to touch her, to reassure herself that she was alright. Once within her daughter's line of sight, Rose knelt down and drew Freya's little hands into her own; clasping them gently as the little girl sleepily met her gaze.

"Why'd you disappear like that sweetheart?" She asked softly, struggling desperately to keep her more violent emotions tethered. "You really scared me."

Freya's big brown eyes grew even larger, a look of remorse and confusion coming over her innocent features. "I'm sorry mummy," she answered sweetly, closing in to cuddle into Rose's arms, "I just didn't want to leave her alone for too long."

Rose was so relieved to feel the cool sweat covering the back of Freya's vest top that she almost ignored that strange response entirely. Drawing back a little, she stroked the cool skin on either side of her daughter's little freckled face, smoothing back the damp strands of dirty blond hair. "Who's alone honey," Rose asked with more patience than she actually felt, "what was so important that you left your bed and came all the way up here for?"

Freya scrunched up her face in annoyance and pulled away. "My _friend_ mummy," she answered, rolling her eyes as if it were perfectly obvious. "Come see. I'm sure she'd like to meet you." So it was a game, Rose realized, as her daughter once again moved to lean against the glass, one slightly freckled cheek resting on its cool surface. Rose fought against a wave of guilt as the implications of that set in. She'd thought their daughter was so happy here, traveling from place to place, seeing the universe with their small family of four. Could she have been so very wrong; was Freya lonely?

Playing along, Rose addressed the empty space in front of the mirror, smiling warmly in greeting. "Hello," she said, giving a little wave, "I'm Rose. What's your name?"

Freya tugged on her mother's hand, letting out a long suffering sigh that should never had come from such a little girl. "No Mummy," she scolded lightly, "you have to do what I'm doing. Put your cheek on the glass," Freya squished the side of her face against the mirror so tightly that her lips puckered out, "like this."

"All right," Rose agreed, deciding that this wasn't a battle worth fighting, "I'll lean against the glass, if you promise to go right back to bed once I do, yeah?"

The little girl's response was interrupted by a few violent coughs. "Promise," she agreed a moment later, suddenly looking exhausted once again.

Rose moved into the mirror, intending to make this very quick, and leaned her cheek against its cool surface. Freya turned to face her, their matching noses inches apart, "Do you see her mummy?" she asked expectantly, her luminous eyes filled with hope.

Rose opened her mouth, intending to lie as all mother's do when confronted with a child's fantasy, but stopped mid-breath as she caught some inexplicable movement just beyond the mirror's glossy surface.

Freya's smile was triumphant as she noticed her mother's surprise. "That's how it works, you know," she said, as the image of a little girl in pink wool coat became crystal clear, "you can only see her out of the corner of your eye."


	2. Chapter 2

Reflection

Part 2

The Doctor turned the key in the lock as quickly as possible, and shuddered as a particularly cold raindrop slid between his shoulder blades. He waited just a heartbeat longer in the pouring rain, gritting his teeth against the cold, as his adopted son ducked inside the TARDIS ahead of him. Tyler ran up the ramp, ripping his hat off with a grunt of frustration and shaking copious amounts of water out of his thick brown hair. At twenty-one years of age, Tyler was developmentally closer to a human at about sixteen or seventeen. Advanced empathic abilities usually made him more patient and understanding than the average teenager; however he did have his moments. Quickly determining that this was going to be one of them, the Doctor took a deep breath and removed his dripping trench coat. He laid his coat over one of the ship's support beams and hurried over to the TARDIS's center console.

She hummed at him in greeting as he approached, and the Doctor rewarded her with a slight pat before pulling a few levers and twisting a glass globe. He breathed a sigh of relief as the grating sounds of dematerializing filled the console room. Any longer on that planet and the poor girl would have floated away.

Now to deal with his son. The Doctor hitched up a hip and leaned on the console, folding his arms across his chest. "Well, let's have it," he said, eyeing the youth.

"You know," Tyler complained, while removing his decidedly vivid yellow raincoat, "I think you like being uncomfortable. Why else would you land us at the Market of Odensy in the middle of Monsoon season?" The boy pulled off one of the coat's matching rainboots, spilling about a half a cup of water out onto the TARDIS floor in the process. "I mean," he continued, wrenching off the other boot, "we live in a _time ship_ for goodness sake. Why couldn't we have arrived in the summertime, when the sun is shining and the vendors are much more hospitable? But no," Tyler's emphasized his sarcastic tone by wringing his sopping socks out into the top of his boot, "We have to make the apothecary open his shop in the middle of the night to distill some of his "magic potion" from the far reaches of Cheem. And then we jsst hmdt tm hammgt," The Doctor rolled his eyes as Tyler's rant got muffled through the jumper being pulled over his head. "For that matter," his son continued, now clothed only in a white vest and jeans that were soaked up to the knee, "why couldn't we have just gone to the Forrest of Cheem directly, and cut out the middleman?"

The Doctor, mostly dry except for his unruly chestnut hair and a pair of red trainers, affected his most superior expression, "Are you finished?"

Tyler watched his father intently for a second, as if thinking the matter over. "I think I am, yeah."

"Good," the Doctor answered as he sauntered over to his son, shoes squelching with every step, "because if you want to see a _real_ monsoon, I'd be more than happy to take you to Cheem. They don't call it a _rain_forest for nothing you know."

Tyler's brilliant purple eyes sparkled with mischief as he let a small smile come over his handsome face. "I'll bring my bathing suit."

The Doctor flashed an identical grin. "See that you do. In the mean time though," he patted his palms down the front of his brown pinstriped suit jacket, "we've got to get this 'magic elixir' into your sister as soon as possible." He turned towards the support beam where he'd laid his trench coat and frantically rummaged through the numerous pockets.

Tyler tapped his father on the shoulder, producing a small glass vial from his jeans pocket when he got his attention. "You gave it to me for safekeeping."

"Right," he said, absently rubbing the back of his neck, "I knew that. I was just testing you, is all." He palmed the precious elixir and made for the door, gesturing for the young man to follow.

"I don't know Dad," Tyler quipped, "I think you just might be getting forgetful in your old age."

"Oi!" The Doctor stopped mid-stride to glare at his son. Indignation turned to confusion rather quickly though, when he suddenly noticed that he didn't have that far down to look. "When did you get so tall?"

Tyler cocked his head to the side, as if examining his father from a different angle, "is that a gray hair?"

Scowling, the Doctor turned the boy around and gently pushed him back in the right direction. "When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not."

"Seriously Dad," Tyler protested, but kept walking, "with all of time and space to choose from, why do you always quote movies from twentieth century Earth?"

"Because as the Last Lord of Time, I can do whatever I want." He grabbed Tyler's shoulder and pulled him along at a faster pace. "Come on," he continued, "I don't want your sister getting any worse, and your mum's probably going mental from us being gone so long as it is."

They turned to enter Freya's room at last, stopping abruptly just inside the doorway. All the levity of the last few minutes disappeared as they warily glanced around. Nothing was out of the ordinary really: the messy pink duvet was hanging off the mattress; stuffed animals of every shape, size, and species cluttered the room; and the serenity chimes his daughter had received as a baby filled the air with soothing sounds. Rose and Freya weren't present, and the Doctor could have easily just assumed they'd moved into the family room to watch a movie, or even to cuddle on the big bed in the master suite next door; but he didn't. Because something, (and he wasn't quite certain what) was very, very wrong.

"Dad?" The Doctor looked over at his very psychic son, noting the uneasy expression on his youthful face.

"I know," he said, gently laying a palm on Tyler's shoulder. "'We need to find them."

* * *

_The Doctor's quote comes from the fabulous classic film by George Lucas, "Return of the Jedi."_


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

At three years old, Freya had designed and built an entire miniature city, made almost completely out of blocks and oversized Lego's. The dimensions of every structure had been absolutely perfect; from the working clock tower at city hall, to the bouncy castle set up in a local playground. Rose and her husband had been on their way to collect their daughter for supper, and found her surrounded by two-foot high skyscrapers, and trees made out of popsicle sticks. She'd stood there stunned, as Time Agent Barbie discussed the moral consequences of disturbing the space time continuum with a miniature K9. "NEVER cross your own timeline," Barbie had warned the tiny metal dog in Freya's most authoritative voice, "it can get you in lots of trouble."

Rose had been too shocked to say anything at first; pride and fear warring in her mind as the very task of raising this child seemed ever more impossible. Eventually she'd just settled on humor as a fallback, flippantly blurting out the first quip that came to mind. "She must get this from your side of the family, yeah?"

The Doctor had turned to look at his wife, beaming with unmitigated pride and love. "Oh no," he'd answered softly, "the mathematical and technical genius required to make this," he gestured to the massive structure, "she obviously gets from me." Rose had just rolled her eyes. "But the dreams, Rose," he'd continued, complete awe lacing every word, "the imagination of it… that is so human."

* * *

Two years and three months later, Rose Tyler was once again confronted with her little girl's unique brand of humanity. Imagination Freya may have had in droves, but Rose never met a child from Earth who could conjure up their pretend friends, regardless of how hard they believed in them. Still keeping an eye on the impossible figure beyond the mirror's glassy surface, Rose sat on the wardrobe room's metallic floor; gently rocking Freya back and forth in her arms as the her daughter's fever slowly rose again. For the first time since that day she and the Doctor had found her miniature city, Rose began to doubt her ability to raise the child of a Time Lord. There were so many things she didn't understand about her baby girl, so many things she _couldn't_ understand. And soon it was going to be even harder...

Swallowing down most of the panic and quickly blinking back a few stinging tears, Rose shifted the little girl in her arms. She needed to get Freya away from her juvenile construct in the mirror and back into bed. Falling to pieces really wasn't an option just yet.

Struggling to stand with the uncooperative little burden in her arms, Rose stopped a moment later when Freya let out a quiet moan. Little arms wrapped around her neck, as a tiny flushed face cuddled more closely into Rose's cotton shirt. "I want daddy," she pleaded, before letting out another hacking cough. "He said he was going to make me better. I hurt all over again." Her little voice broke as her luminous brown eyes filled with tears. "When's he coming back?"

"Anytime now, sweetheart," Rose answered automatically, offering up the brightest smile she could muster. "He and Tyler just have to make sure they've got the perfect medicine to fix you up, and then they're going to pop right back home."

Freya nodded, causing two little tears to escape down her freckled cheeks. Rose reached up to wipe them away, but stopped mid-motion, startled by a sudden change in the TARDIS's vibration. "You see," she said, offering up a smile a million times more genuine than the one before, we've entered the vortex. You know what that means?"

Freya weakly mirrored her mother's jubilant expression. "Daddy's home!"

* * *

The Doctor ran up the spiral staircase two steps at a time, his son close at his heels. It had taken Tyler no longer than thirty seconds to connect his conscious mind with his mother's, and therefore pinpoint Rose and Freya's exact location. What trouble they could have gotten themselves into in the wardrobe room was anyone's guess, but he couldn't seem to shake the nagging sense of foreboding he'd felt upon finding them missing. And come to think of it, his girls did tend to be rather jeopardy-friendly.

The ancient door opened with nary a creak and every muscle in the doctor's body took a giant sigh of relief. His wife and daughter were huddled on the floor in front of the full length mirror. Both blondes looked up with matching grins of greeting. Little Freya's arms came up to demand he fill them.

His wet trainers slid across the metallic surface with a little squelch as the Doctor slid to his knees before them, quickly gathering his daughter against his chest. She wrapped herself around him, burrowing her little face into his collar and securing her knees above his narrow hips. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, poppet." He replied, rocking her back and forth for a moment, while keeping his eyes locked with Rose's. "Hello," he said, reaching out to squeeze her hand and offering an apologetic smile. "Sorry we're late, ran into a bit of a squall actually."

Tyler took that moment to make himself known, joining his family on the floor and offering up a smirk. "_Squall_ is a too weak a word to describe monsoon season on a flood plane." The Doctor cast his son a stern look, shaking his head slightly. "But we're fine!" Tyler quickly added. "Never better. No worries here." He moved to embrace Rose in a tight hug, kissing her gently on the cheek. "You okay, mum?"

Rose used the heel of her hand to carefully wipe underneath each eye, obviously trying desperately to regain her usual composure. "As long as you've come back with what you left for. You _do_ have the medicine?"

"'Course I do," the Doctor replied, his tone light and jovial. "I couldn't let my girls down, now could I?"

Freya smiled into his neck, only to pull back a moment later, her little face scrunched up worriedly. "Is it going to taste yucky?"

Tyler stifled a laugh, but the Doctor ignored him. "No," he denied emphatically. "What would make you think a thing like that, hmm? Have you done something particularly naughty to warrant such a punishment?" Freya just shook her head, eyes wide. "Then there's no reason to suffer yucky medicine. We're going to mix it with your tea and add a whole spoonful of sugar."

"Like Mary Poppins?"

"Yes," he replied, giving her an affectionate kiss on the brow. "Exactly like Mary Poppins."

The heat transferring to the Doctor's lips from Freya's usually cool skin was alarming and it spurred him into action. "I think," he said, still holding Freya in his arms as he rose to his feet, "that we should get this medicine into you sooner, rather than later."

The Doctor made towards the wardrobe room's only exit, Rose and Tyler following close behind. "Wait!" Freya's emphatic plea stopped all three of them in their tracks. "I can't leave her alone."

The Doctor looked back at Rose, who was wearily pushing two fingers into her forehead. "Mummy's coming with us, poppet," he told his daughter, his voice laced with comfort and not a little confusion. "Nobody's going to be here alone."

"No, daddy," she explained, her tone determined even as she struggled to stay awake. "My friend, in the mirror."

Ice instantly filled the doctor's veins at his daughter's words. Turning away from the rest of his family, he reached a hand up to brush a strand of soft hair behind her ear, gently pressing his fingertips into one of her temples. _How long have you known her, Love?_

Freya leaned into his touch, already used to this kind of communication. _For a while now, daddy, s_he answered him, her innocence burning a hole of guilt straight through his stomach. S_he wants to come out and play. I don't think mummy likes her much though. She got scared when I showed her how to see my friend. _

The Doctor closed his eyes, dreading what was to come, but needing to project only strength and comfort through the mental link he shared with the little Time Lady. _Don't worry about mummy,_ he told her. _I'm going to make it all right. You're going to need to trust me though. Can you do that?_

The Doctor felt a surge of love and faith so powerful it almost sent him to his knees. _Of course I can, daddy. You can do anything. You always make the monsters go away. _

His lips spreading in a smile of relief, the Doctor turned around. Tyler was frowning in confusion, as if he'd picked up on some of Freya and his conversation. Rose's eyes were shooting daggers.

"Tyler," he asked gently, handing his son the vial of precious elixir, "would you please take your sister downstairs and make sure she takes her medicine? You need to mix four drops with a cup of tea." The Doctor smiled down at his daughter. "Extra sugar."

Obviously sensing something was wrong, Tyler agreed without hesitation, moving to take his little sister into his arms. She wrapped herself around his body exactly as she had her father's, face into the crook of his shoulder, tiny legs wrapped around her brother's waist. "Come on Lady Frey," he said, quickly carrying her out the door, "something tells me we don't want to be here for this anyway."

When Tyler's footsteps finally made it down the stairs, the Doctor turned back to his wife, barely managing not to wince at her appearance. Rose was flushed, the pink color in her cheeks almost taking over her entire face. Her hands, usually a pair of his favorite things in the universe, now nervously clenched and unclenched as she paced a little bit around the room. When she spoke however, her voice was surprisingly steady. "What's this all about?"

The Doctor stepped towards her slowly, as if approaching a skittish animal, but she retreated, as if he were the predator and she the prey. "This isn't just some mad Time Lord version of an imaginary friend, is it?"

He answered her softly, still creeping ever closer. "No."

Two glistening tears spilled over her eye lids and streaked down her cheeks. Rose wiped at them viciously, making a little frustrated noise as she backed up even further. "I can't seem to turn them off today," she told him, as more tears fell. "So I'm thinking we need to make this quick, yeah?" She'd made it to the mirror now, and she glanced at it anxiously before turning her gaze back to him. "Why," she asked, making it crystal clear that an explanation was mandatory, "is there a little girl in our mirror?"

The Doctor looked up into her eyes, wishing for all the world that he didn't have to have this conversation. Taking a deep breath he answered her, pouring a wealth of meaning into one small sentence. "She's not a little girl, Rose."


End file.
